CLAUDE BERNARD 



39 



of a rabbit, you find it again in the urine un- 

 changed, with all its chemical properties the same. 

 . . . I had soon to give up my first point of view, 

 because this question of the existence of a sugar- 

 producing organ, that I had thought such a hard 

 problem of physiology, was really the first thing 

 revealed to me, as it were of itself, at once." 



He kept two dogs on different diets, one with 

 sugar, the other without it ; then killed them during 

 digestion, and tested the blood in the hepatic veins : — 



' 'What was my surprise, when I found a con- 

 siderable quantity of sugar in the hepatic veins of 

 the dog that had been fed on meat only, and had 

 been kept for eight days without sugar : just as I 

 found it in the other dog that had been fed for the 

 same time on food rich in sugar. . . . 



" Finally, after many attempts — apres beaucoup 

 dessais et plusieurs illusions que je fus oblige 1 de 

 rectifier par des tdtonnements — I succeeded in 

 showing, that in dogs fed on meat the blood pass- 

 ing through the portal vein does not contain sugar 

 before it reaches the liver ; but when it leaves the 

 liver, and comes by the hepatic veins into the 

 inferior vena cava, this same blood contains a con- 

 siderable quantity of a sugary substance (glucose)." 



His further discovery, that this formation of 

 sugar is increased by puncture of the floor of the 

 fourth ventricle, was published in 1849. It is 

 impossible to exaggerate the importance of Claude 

 Bernard's single-handed work in this field of physi- 

 ology and pathology : — 



"As a mere contribution to the history of sugar 



